Berth
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A berth is essentially a bed aboard a spacecraft. It is required, so that officers, crew and passengers can work and serve on a spacecraft. Without a berth, it is not possible for NPCs to be aboard a spacecraft at all, in order to perform functions or their duty.
Berths can also be held by avatars, making them spawn tied to the spacecraft and allowing them access to crew restricted areas and systems depending on the type of berth they hold. If the avatar has chain of command over the spacecraft, they will still have access to the spacecraft as if they had a berth.
Berths provide a place for avatars to recall into the universe after their body is killed. To recall to any berth, the life support system of a spacecraft must be functioning.
Berths supply life support to the occupant, even if the air is gone from the room. This could happen if the life support system was functioning but the door to the outside was left open.
An avatar enters their berth by standing near it and pressing the E key. While in their berth, an avatar can access their personal sea chest.
When officers, crew, troops, or passengers join the roster of a ship, they are assigned a berth of the appropriate type. They board the ship by recalling to their berths so that is where they start.
Berth Types
There are several different types of berths aboard a spacecraft. The type of a berth is defined in the spacecraft design.
| Berth Type | Occupant |
|---|---|
| Captain's Berth* | Captain |
| Officer Berth | Officer |
| Crew Berth | Crewman |
| Troop Berth | Troop |
| Passenger Berth | Passenger |
| *If no captain's berth is specifically defined, an available berth is reserved in this order:
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A spacecraft cannot have more crew then it has crew berths, it cannot have more troops than it has troop berths, and so on. Commonly a spacecraft design has a number of crew berths equal to the number of control stations, and at least as many troop berths as the number of turrets. It can however be advantageous to have spare berths.
Captain's Berth
The captain's berth is a berth that can only be held by an avatar.
A spacecraft must always have a captain's berth, therefore if none is specifically defined in the design another berth is reserved for the captain.
When designing a spacecraft it is important to take the reserved captain's berth into account if no captain's berth is planned, or the design will have one less crew berth than expected.
Officer Berths
The officer berth allows an officer to command the spacecraft.
Only one officer can be in command of the spacecraft at the same time, so more officer berths are not normally needed. Spare officer berths allow for transporting of officers, or simply having spares in case of emergencies. But most commonly additional officer berths are used for additional avatars to help with commanding the spacecraft.
Requesting a Berth
A berth can be requested from anyone who can establish contact to a spacecraft through the Comm (F3) window. It is requested with a click on the Request Berth button. Alternatively it is possible to request a berth using the Spacecraft (F9) window's roster tab while aboard the spacecraft, which will then broadcast the request on the intercom channel.
Once a request for a berth has been made, it will have to be accepted by someone on the spacecraft. There are however cases where the spacecraft itself or a NPC officer will accept the request automatically.
- While aboard an empire spacecraft that does not have any commanding staff, the spacecraft automatically accepts berth requests on the intercom channel.
- While aboard a non-empire spacecraft that does not have any commanding staff and the empire's Commerce policy allow "Spacecraft Requisition", the spacecraft automatically accepts captain berth requests on the intercom channel and changes the empire ownership of the spacecraft to that of the requester.
- While requesting a berth over a communication channel other than the intercom, an officer will accept the berth request made by avatars that are in chain of command over them.
- The spacecraft has policies that enable automatic accepting of berths on the Spacecraft (
F9) window's policy tab, which are then accepted by an officer.
Releasing a Berth
Releasing a berth can be done on the Bio (F8) window using the Release Berth button, the button will be hidden if no berth is held. Alternatively it is possible to kick oneself off the roster by using the Spacecraft (F9) window's roster tab while aboard the spacecraft.
Do however note that releasing the berth of a spacecraft that is held in stasis will cause the spacecraft to be lost forever.